A Young Love
by Mugglegal
Summary: A very LONG L/J fic. Consists of romance, humor, drama, etc. Also includes MWPP, so please R/R


A Young Love  
Disclaimer: everything except the things not in the HP books are mine, and everything else belongs to the great J.K. Rowling!  
A/n: there are no chapters in this long story! So it might take you awhile to find your place if you leave then come back, sorry! But, please read and enjoy!!!!  
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Lily Anna Evans had a fairly normal life...that is until she received her acceptance letter into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry on her eleventh birthday (August 20th). Before that she was just a normal school girl from England who was quite attractive and outgoing. Her family thought the letter was all some spoof rather, or a practical joke sent from Lily's friends at school. Lily knew better however. Strange things always seemed to happen to her, and at the worst times as they could. As a result of this, Lily always had detention and had a reputation at her school as being the 'class clown', although she never tried to do anything to get attention in her whole life. She was desperate to find out what was wrong with her, but her mother wasn't concerned about the "freak accidents". Whenever Lily approached her parents about the problem and the weird things she couldn't have possibly done they would always give her the same look and a stern talking to saying things like, "Lily dear, it's your own fault, you brought these things onto yourself." or "Well Lily, if you are so concerned honey, then stop messing around and be serious about your school". Lily had always stormed out of these pleasant (yeah right) occasions screaming at her parents that it wasn't her fault, while her older sister Petunia looked on, with glee in her eyes. As far as Petunia was concerned, Lily was her parent's favorite daughter, which wasn't true at all. This plea for attention that Petunia seemed to have led her to dislike, then eventually hate her younger sister (a.k.a. the cute one).  
Anyway the acceptance letter into Hogwarts changed Lily's life around. She finally understood the feeling in her heart that had told that she just didn't belong in the world in which she was living. Lily knew she had to go to this school, it was her destiny, the only other future she had. So she went and she let no one stand in her way, not even her parent's or Petunia when they would exclaim how magic didn't exist, but feeling that their daughter needed to find her place in life, they lent her some money and dropped her off at the Leaky Cauldron, none the less, to shop for her school supplies. There at Diagon Alley Lily learned that it wasn't a dream, it was pure reality. When she got home she was ecstatic and just couldn't wait till September second.   
Her first year at Hogwarts was amazing! (What other word could describe the most wonderful place on earth). She learnt many things, and was very much surprised when she found out that she had a talent for magic even though she came from a muggle family. Lily was put in Gryffindor, and there she met her three best friends for life, Alex, Rose and Kate. Lily was so thankful that she had an opportunity to start over at a new place, where she knew she belonged and where she had so many friends. That longing feeling had finally left her heart.   
Her first year was great, but Lily knew it was all too good to last. It flew by so fast she didn't know what hit her. When she came home for the summer vacation she had excellent stories to tell her family, and great memories that would remain in her forever.   
That summer went by slow, but she had a great birthday and eventually made it back to Hogwarts, only to enjoy another great year in which she would make many more friends and unfortunately some enemies. These enemies included the Slytherins: Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape, the most disgusting, rude and obnoxious boys in the entire second years wait…scratch that...in all of hogwarts!!! Lily learned many knew things in her second year including many more charms (her favorite) and was getting slightly better in her worst subject, transfiguration. She was almost top in everything else, beaten only by some Gryffindor boy named James Potter. She knew him vaguely, but not that much as to know his character and personality.  
Once again the previous year flew by, and once again Lily Anna Evans was starting a fresh new year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry once again accompanied by her good friends Rose, Kate and Alex. In Lily's third year she got a little more at ease with the school, and didn't stress out as much about homework as she had in her two previous years. Lily, although this might seem a little conceited, she realized that she could still get the good grades and have fun at her school at the same time (WOW!). The third year also tended to bring Lily yet more enemies, but this number of people balanced out with the amount of boy admirers she had throughout the school (she was by far the most beautiful third year in the school). Her list of enemies now included James Potter (the cutest, or so they said, boy in the third year). He got on her list from the beginning as he bragged about topping her in everything. This was more of an annoyance than hatred towards him, until he "accidentally" made her nose grow to the size of a cucumber. As if that was enough, Lily received a detention too, for supposedly provoking him (as if she ever did anything to him). Nevertheless that particular incident would cause the school much suffering during the years to come.   
Lily survived her third year by passing with flying colors. Her parents were so proud of her, and Petunia…well; Petunia was just plain old Petunia.   
After a fun filled summer, Lily proceeded to leave for school once more. The train ride there gave Lily time to think about her life and how much fun she was having with it. She secretly wished that her whole life was as rewarding and was to bring as much happiness as she found at Hogwarts. Lily's fourth year was so much fun. She spent it having a great time studying and learning about the magical world with her friends. They were so great to have around. Kate, Alex and Rose were like the sister's Lily never had. The only difference in Lily's fourth year, besides her going through puberty, was her everlasting feud with Mr. Egotistic himself, the almighty James Potter. It was prank after prank, which earned both of them in turn countless detentions (maybe even perhaps a school record, only to be broken the next year by Sirius Black). Lily's friends were telling Lily to let it go, they kept telling her, "Lily cut it out, you'll get expelled if he doesn't kill you before then, you're almost fourteen, you're way to old to be like this, Lil, come on it's a worthless cause!" While Lily was being lectured on the role of sanity in one's life James was being tormented by his two three best friends Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. They kept taunting James saying, "Jamie-boy's being beat up by a girl, ohhh how sad! And we thought you were stronger than that, to bad!!! Shucks!" Then Remus would bud in, "No seriously James this is stupid, and you hate each other leave it at that! These are silly immature pranks!" But as if their friends hadn't told tem anything, Lily and James continued on their paths aimed at destroying the other's life.   
With all their busy pranks and loads of schoolwork, it's no wonder that the fourth year at Hogwarts flew by so fast, now onto their fifth year!   
Ironically both Lily and James were made prefects, but that didn't put a hold to their evil stunts. It was during the fifth year that their hate reached an all time high. But the weird thing though, was that neither of them fought with each other for a humane reason. It was like they loved to send insults toward each other and that was that. By the fifth year their endless fighting was tearing apart their friendships, they couldn't even remember what they were fighting about, it just kept on routinely going.   
On January 31st, in their fifth year, a drastic change occurred in their hateful acquaintance with each other. On that extremely cold, winter day Lily and James were outside on the quidditch pitch screaming insults at each other for no apparent reason (as usual) James didn't notice the first year come walking toward James. Come to think about it, neither had Lily, they were to absorbed in their feud. When they finally noticed the small boy he was on the ground, unconscious, after James, flailing out his arms in anger, subconsciously hit the boy with such a force he was flown backward and thrown against the ground knocking him out. Both James and Lily managed to stand each other for the five minutes it took to get him to the hospital wing. Once outside the doors the screaming started up again this time taking on a new subject. "How could you hit the boy!?" Lily yelled, "How come you didn't seem him or heard him when he came!????"  
"I was to busy yelling at you, besides it's partly your fault too!"  
"I can't handle this pressure!! James you hit him!!! Now go in there and apologize!!!"  
"Only if you come with me!!!!! You little-" His words were cut short by an out of breath Professor Dumbledore, "That will be quite enough you two. You have been going at it for years now; I have been waiting for something like this to happen for some time you know. You two are prefects, get hold of yourselves and start realizing that the world doesn't always have to revolve around you. Your actions hurt others, including that young man and your friends. Please for my sake, don't continue to tear apart my school with your bickering. For my sake and many others, please stop your fighting! Please!" And with that he swiftly walked into the hospital room leaving an astonished pair of fifth years speechless and extremely ashamed of their behavior and actions toward their school during the past four and a half years at Hogwarts. A minute later Lily first spoke, "You know James he was right. I can't believe I am saying this, but if our bickering is hurting others it needs to stop, now!"   
You're right. I'll sto-" James was interrupted by a Lily's loud laugh. She finally managed to squeeze out, "James, I can't believe it, sworn enemies, agreeing on something, at last!!!" She then broke into a laughing fit once more while he pretended to be angry but couldn't pull it off who then started laughing a the circumstance also.  
Meanwhile Alex, Kate and Rose were playing an extremely violent game of exploding snap with Remus, Sirius and Peter, when James and Lily who was holding her stomach and hanging onto James from laughing so hard stumbled into the Gryffindor common room, still laughing, to see curious looks on everybody's faces. Sirius cautiously crept over to James, nudged him in the stomach and whispered, " James, had a little to much butterbeer? It actually looks like you're having a good time with your…err…enemy for the past five years." Although he had tried to whisper, everybody else, including Lily heard this and started laughing. Trying to make the story as short as possible Lily calmly stated, "With some help from Dumbledore, we realized that our feud was going a little to far after we almost killed a first year from Ravenclaw." The immediate reaction around the room was silence, trying to comprehend what she had just said, then came, "WHAT! Almost killed somebody!" from all their friends. "It's a long story, but we have decided to stop fighting on account of well… almost murder, so I'm off to bed now, goodnight everyone, including Lily", James said. "Yeah that sounds good, I had a long day, goodnight everyone, you too James", came Lily's remark out of her mouth as she pulled her tired body up the stairs to her bedroom.   
When the two fifth years were out of sight, Remus whistled then said, "Finally!" with a long sigh. Everyone else agreed with him and was happy that their two friends had finally sorted out their differences. Rose too pointed out that from then on everyone could be in the same room together without having to listen to the constant bickering.   
"Amen to that, brother!" Alex said before retiring to her bed along with the others. Sirius was the only one who disagreed saying, "The fighting was some excitement that brightened our boring lives!"  
The rest of the fifth year flew by now that Lily had another friend on her side. She soon realized that there was some finer reasons to keep him as a friend, such as: 1) he was good at transfiguration and could help her, and 2) he was also not very friendly towards Severus Snape, which otherwise means…let the games begin. So, from then on in their spare time anyone could find Lily and James coming up with fabulous pranks to play on the greasy-haired slytherin.   
When Lily and her friends finally caught up with themselves they were headed home on the Hogwart's express for the summer. Everyone expected great things to come out of their summer. Kate and Alex were both taking family vacations to America to visit the witching community there. They hoped to meet up with each other and have a good time. Peter too, was spending the summer with his family on a cruise in the Mediterranean, where nothing could go wrong for him there (as he was pretty clumsy), but falling of the boat. Even Remus, was going off to Germany to visit relatives and to sight see. He was extremely excited.   
Lily felt pretty depressed as she was listening to everyone tell of their vacations until she realized that Rose, James and Sirius were staying at home in England for the summer. Sirius was staying at James' house. "His parents wanted to get rid of his burden and relax over the summer," James said. "They didn't either," Sirius protested, "they just thought I should have a little fun over the summer, that's al!"  
"Sure Sirius!"   
Rose and Lily decided that they were going spend all summer together and have a great time playing jokes on the boys and what not.   
After the train ride was over and everyone had changed and embarked the Hogwarts Express, they were all saying teary goodbyes. But naturally Lily's group didn't, their view was that they would see each other next year, crying was for babies.   
That summer was so much fun, well as fun as it could be with Remus, Kate, Peter and Alex gone. Lily and Rose as well as the boys spent much time together. Well to tell you the truth, every time the girls got together the boys would ruin their "girl's night out" by using floo power and surprising them right as they were rushing out the door to go shopping or some feminine thing like that. The boys would ask what they were up to and the girls would reply, and then the guys would hurriedly make them do something else with them.   
One day in late July Rose and Lily made Sirius and James see this total "chick flick" movie in which the girl is dying when she meets this guy and they fall in love. In the end of the movie the woman died and the guy killed himself, because he was so depressed. After that Sirius came out of the movie crying, with James comforting him. "It's j-just th-th-that she was s-so pr-pret-pretty," Sirius said in between sobs. Lily stated bluntly that it was just a movie while the guys quickly sobered up amidst their female company.  
But, in the end the summer was a blast or everyone. Rose, Lily, James and Sirius spent so much time together and totally connected with each other. Lily got to know the guys a little better, as they got to know her and Rose more too. The summer had gone by way too quickly and when Remus, Peter, Alex and Kate returned from their vacations, they were informed that they had missed a lot of inside jokes and fun pranks.   
There wasn't much time for them to complain, however, as school was soon to be coming up and the eight teens were making their way into the sixth year. Lily later remarked that Hogwarts was, "…the best seven years of my life!" And they were all going by way too quickly. Everyone had changed and matured so much, the girls all had beautiful curved figures and pretty faces, while the guys had strong lean figures with masculine voices.   
The first day of school was much like any other, Sirius got an all time record for detentions on the first day of school (5), Lily and James proved that they were still the top academic students plus the twosome who provides Snape with humiliation, and Peter, well the first day of school told everyone that Peter hadn't matured much during the summer.   
After a couple days of starting the new school year Sirius, James, and Lily were complaining that there wasn't enough action. They decided to set off the new school year with a little bang, also to prove that they were still the best pranksters in all the school.   
The next day while everyone was making there way down to breakfast the eight teens were making sure everything was set. People begin filing into the Great Hall with astonished looks on their faces gasping and looking around in every direction. The Great Hall was decorated in Gryffindor's colors, scarlet and gold. All the tables had scarlet table clothes and gold plates and there was gold streamers hanging form the ceiling in all directions. Midway through breakfast Lily, James and Sirius made their way to the middle of the room, with delight and smirks on their lit up faces.   
"James, Sirius and I would like to inform you all that Severus Snape over there," Lily pointed and waved, "decided that there needed to be a little change in decoration, and thought Gryffindor colors were perfect for the occasion." Several people snickered at this remark. Next James proclaimed,  
"He also has decided to proclaim this day on behalf of all the wonderful Gryffindor students, Gryffindor Day." Rose, Kate, Remus, Peter, and Alex stood up at the Gryffindor table while Rose said, "I'd like to make a toast. Ahh-hem. To James, Sirius and Lily, and Gryffindor's everywhere… HAPPY GRYFFINDOR DAY!!!"   
"Here, here!" Sirius yelled from across the room. Every one in the Great Hall including the teachers broke out into applause, with the Gryffindor table leading them on. Only the Slytherins remained sitting, unamused looks on their faces. The Gryffindor's then picked up Lily, James and Sirius and carried them back to their common room to celebrate the "holiday". Alex, Rose and Kate even slipped into the kitchens and brought food for the occasion.   
From then on Lily, James, Sirus, Remus, Kate, Peter, Alex and Rose were known as the great Gryffindor's, and people from the younger years would always move out of the way to let the group pass by as they were walking and laughing to their classes, in which they were always late.   
With all these fun times, gleeful and sneaky pranks, and busy schoolwork to keep them occupied. The year as always was going by way to fast and coming shortly to an end. In June it was, for the sixth time, once again time to go home for the summer. After a tired night of partying everyone was back on the Hogwarts express thinking of the year that they had enjoyed so much. Lily said in a depressed sort of way, "Well, that was great, I think our sixth year was my favorite. I am just so said that it is already over, only one more year of Hogwarts, only one more year of us being best friends and seeing each other all the time, ohh my god, I think I'm gonna cry!"   
"Lil it's ok," came James soft reply as he moved over towards her and hugged her watching the many tears stream down her face, "We all had a great time, but let's save this for another year!"  
"I guess you're right," Lily smiled. Sirius then in attempt to break up the depressed feelings around him laughed, "Hey guys remember that time when we made Snape's robes invisible and he was wearing pink polka-doted boxers!!" He continued to laugh. Everyone laughed, and then Alex commented, "But, remember, YOU made the boxers polka' doted!"  
"Yeah, well it made the effect!" Next came Kate's favorite prank, "My favorite prank we pulled was setting everyone except Snape's bed on fire and making the teachers assume that he did it. That was fun seeing him clean the trophy's for four weeks!"  
"That was the greatest in my opinion too!" Came the stifled cry from Peter. " No way you guys, none of those are good compared to the one we played over Christmas break when Snape was the only one staying from Slytherin. Remember we pulled so many pranks on him that he called his parent's and his dad came and picked him up here personally! Man, that was great, my all time favorite!"   
"Did you guys ever take notice that Snape's the only one we ever pick on, do you think that's a little rude, maybe we should expand our surroundings and find new culprits…for his sake." Remus's well thought of point (in his opinion) was taken the wrong way as everyone's mouth dropped open and James and Sirius both yelled, "You think we should stop picking on Snape??!!!" Remus was then tackled by all seven of the seventeen year olds in the compartment. "Mush pile!" Lily screamed as she, James, Rose, Kate, Sirius, Peter and Alex all jumped on Remus, who was yelling, "NOOOOOOOOO!!!!"  
After that fiasco which caused many kids from other compartments to come and look at the pile of students (including two prefects) who were wrestling each other on the ground, the train was coming to a halt in front of the station and none of the students were dressed. They were obviously preoccupied. They quickly changed into ordinary street clothes and quickly said their goodbyes then rushed into the waiting arms of their parent's. Mr. And Mrs. Evans were having a delightful conversation with Mr. And Mrs., Potter when Lily and James, both laughing from the incident on the train came running to them with their carts trying to race each other. "Well, well, well we didn't know you two were such good friends!" Exclaimed Mrs. Potter a rotund lady with a short brown bob. " Yeah well we've been through a lot these past six years," James sighed. Lily snorted at the thought of their bickering days and winked at James. Which resulted in both of them starting once more.   
Once at home, James immediately used floo powder and went to Siirius's house. He stayed there that night and they came up with the ultimate summer plan. The very next day they sent owls to Kate, Rose, Lily, Alex, Peter, and Remus and met everyone at Jame's house, where his mom greeted them most affectionately, by baking cookies, which were gone in thirty seconds. James then cleared his throat and said, "Sirius and I have come up with the ultimate summer plan! We have decided to go on a vacation to…to… well let's just say we haven't got that part figured out yet, any suggestions?"   
To make a long day short they eventually decided that a week prior to leaving for school again, they would meet in Diagon Alley with all their school stuff (they wouldn't be coming back home before leaving on the Hogwarts Express) and spend the week there, staying at the Leaky Cauldron. Everyone agreed to meet and thought they would have a great time. They spent most of summer having a good time in each other's company. And at the end of the summer, like everyone agreed, they met up at the Leaky Cauldron and got their rooms. Since they didn't have a lot of money to spend on the expensive rooms, it was like this, girls in one room and boys in another right next door. They didn't care if they were squished because they were used to living together at Hogwarts anyways.   
They had a really fun week of shopping for school supplies and the latest new fashions, to eating at fancy restaurants and brainstorming of new, outstanding pranks to make their last year really count (Sirius). One day they took a taxicab out into the country and spent the day there playing quidditch and having a nice picnic. Hey all had a wonderful vacation in London and weren't very happy when they had to wake up a dawn to get everything ready for their return to Hogwarts. Sure, they were excited about going back to school, but they had had so much fun during their vacation, that they didn't want to leave so soon.   
They went through the barrier reluctantly and hopped onto the train just in time. They found and empty compartment and everyone let out a huge sigh. "Now, that was a summer I will never forget!" Sirius commented. Once again Lily started crying, but this time all the girls stated sobbing and the guys had to comfort them.   
At once everyone perked up when the compartment door open, but when they saw whom it was they put evil looks on their faces. "Look who it is Mr. and Mrs. Potter and their fan club," drawled Severus Snape. Sirius immediately jumped up and said in a menacing voice full of threat, "Watch who you're talking to Snape, wouldn't want the Head Boy to get you in trouble would you?"  
Snape and his gang fled immediately and James sat down, fuming. Only Sirius had known that James had been made Head Boy, so naturally the other six teens said, "What James, you're Head boy!"   
"Guess so! Hey does anybody know who head girl is, I need to know who I have to work with his whole year." Everybody could tell he wasn't looking forward to it. Everyone nodded "no" but to everyone's surprise Lily said, "Yep!"   
"Well…who then!" Sirius asked. "Me, of course!" Answered Lily, "You didn't think Dumbledore would make you Head Boy without me as Head Girl would he? I mean we were prefects together for two years, I think he thinks we work well together." Remus whistled and Alex, Remus, Peter, Kate and Rose started laughing while James and Lily exchanged shrugging shoulders. Rose spoke first, "I think we just found a perfect couple Ladies and Gentlemen, Snape was right, Good evening Mr. and Mrs. Potter!"  
"Shut-up, we're just friends, although I am glad that you're head girl, I was afraid I would have to work with that ditzy hufflepuff prefect, Sabrina Jenkins!" Everybody laughed and forgot about the 'couple' comment (everybody but Sirius and Rose that is).   
When they arrived at school and after the school sorting in which gryffindor got 12 new first years Dumbledore began his speech. This time, however, his speech was more serious than usual which attracted everyone's attention, even Sirius's.  
"Good evening everyone. My we have got quite and exiting groups this year. I see great things for our first years. Once again Filch has asked me to read the list of forbidden things in the castle, but once again I don't have time as you are all mighty hungry as I can imagine. Well I have to talk to you'll about something very important. As you know Voldemort is quickly gaining power in the wizarding world. We have figured out his identity and he too, went to Hogwarts many a year ago (gasps from audience). I know, I know, how can someone so evil be let into Hogwart's well, to tell you the truth I don't know, and I didn't know him in his youth so I don't know what to make of it. Except, he knows a few things about Hogwarts as you all will after being schooled here for seven years. Not to alarm anyone, but he might be getting pretty close to our school and we have to be prepared for that. So, here is where you'll come in. Can I have my Head Boy and Girl come up here please?" James and Lily stood from their seats and casually walked over to where Dumbledore was waiting for them, " My you two look old, well must be my eyesight, anyway let's get back to business. Any time we find that Voldemort is remotely close, or near our school, we will evacuate the school to where you are all sitting now, the Great Hall. If in class, the teacher will bring you here, or if in your common room your prefects will make sure you all get here safe. Lily, James, I and the rest of the teachers will search the school in groups and look for any missing students while the prefects remain in charge in here. Is that understood? Now may I have the prefects stand up please? Ahh yes, thank you. Ok. So, on a happier note, I hope we will never have to use this emergency drill, and I hope you all have a great school year, full of fun, joy, and of course homework! Now dig in!" Plates of food appeared on all five tablesand people started to grab for the food. Professor Dumbledore whispered to James and Lily as they walked back to their seats, "I'd like t talk to you after the fest it is very important."   
"Wow", Lily exclaimed, once they sat down, "that was scary, he must be pretty concerned, let's hope that never happens!"   
"mmeeee mmtooo," Sirius said, his mouth stuffed with food.  
After the feas Lily and James cautiously made their way up to professor Dumblodore's office and he greeted them gravely. "I think you two better sit down." They did as he said and he continued t talk, "Ok I am just going to say this strait out, Lily, we have been getting some undercover information that Voldemort is after you at Hogwarts. That is the main reason I believe that he might be coming to the school to get you, that is why we were practicing the drill. Don't panic, because this is a safe school. I just wanted to let you know and o tell you to always be cautious and to always have someone with you. James-"Professor Dumbledore, why is he after me, my parent's are muggles I have done nothing!" Lily tried to say that calmly. "I know Lily, I don't understand either, but like I said you just have to be extremely cautious, and that brings me to you James. As a friend and fellow peer to Lily I want you to watch over her. I know you are capable of taking care of yourself Lily but I want two of you to know incase anyth9ing unusual happens. Please don't tell your friends unless you don't think they will be frightened. Let's just try to be ourselves and enjoy the rest of the year. Thank you, and I am so sorry!" James nodded and helped Lily up out of her chair. As they were walking back up to their dormitory James kept looking at Lily, she was so pale. It was sickening.  
Lily eventually put the thought of Voldemort after her behind her and went a long with her studies. They both kept the secret as they promised but James was always cautious and always knew where Lily was.   
The year had a great start with the help of some ingenious pranks that came together with the help of the great gryffindors. Snape had been eating breakfast when all of a sudden he turned into a huge hairy gorilla one morning at breakfast. Of course everyone thought they had done such a marvelous transfiguration charm, but they had received a penalty nonetheless. However, they stuck by Sirius's commonly used motto, "It was worth it!".  
One Thursday evening in November, when Lily and James came back from the library after working on a project for their Head Boy/ Girl duties they found Sirius and Rose waiting for them, evil grins plastered on their faces. "What, " Lily said cautiously. "Oh nothing, just looking for some wizard's chess players, get this, the ultimate game, are you in?" Said a siked Rose. "Sure," James and Lily replied, willing to play along with their little scheme, trying to see why they were looking at them weirdly.   
The game was intense, Lily and James vs. Sirius and Rose. At one point right after Sirius killed one of James's knights, he said, "We need to spice this up a little, what do you say we make a little bet?"  
James ad Lily looked at each other sparks in their eyes, sure they were up to the challenge, and they played along. Hence the bet was placed: The team that lost would have to do something for the other team, no matter how embarrassing or cruel it had to be done if they asked it. They all signed a piece of paper and the game continued. Soon enough the whole gryffindor tower was watching this amazing game which every team was trying desperately to win. Everyone was chanting on the last move in which Sirius and Rose one the game. The whole tower cheered waiting to see the bet fulfilled. James and Lily, although irritated, were exited, yet anxious to here their punishment if you will. Sirius and Rose decided they needed time to talk it over and eventually everyone went to bed. That night, in his dream Sirius found the best idea to make James and Lily fulfill their promise to do whatever the other team wanted. So, at three in the morning he woke of Rose brought her down to the common room and discussed the plan. At first Rose was skeptical, thinking that it might be a little too cruel, but then accepted it and gleefully went back to bed. They had decided to wait until Lily and James forgot about it, and then they would spring it onto them. A great plan it 'twas!  
So eventually everyone forgot about the incredible match and went back to their boring school filled lives. One afternoon in early-February, while James and Lily were working in the Library, Sirius walked over to Rose, and casually said, "It's time". Rose's eyes widened and said, "ohh yeah!" When James and Lily walked in later that evening, laughing as usual, Rose and Sirius cornered them. Rose was holding the paper they had signed all their names onto. Lily looked at James and they remembered. "We have thought about it, and we have decided what we are going to make you do." Sirius stated proudly. "Firstly, you know that dance coming up, well you'll be going together." Lily and James shrugged their shoulders, that wasn't that bad. But Rose went on with Sirius beaming approvingly, Lily gulped a she heard the next part," We have noticed that you two are, well how do I put this…in love, so we have decided that you should have your first kiss." Lily and James both started to protest, but Sirius put up his hand and let Rose continue, "Why thank you Sirius. Anyway this kiss will be longer than ten seconds and in the Great Hall during breakfast. We will make an announcement of this little bet and you will perform what you are going to be doing, understand." Lily and James who weren't the sort of wimps to back out of a bet, nodded reluctantly then hauled themselves up the stairs. Lily was so angry with Rose, her best friend, how could she do this, I mean this isn't cruel this is way worse she didn't like James; he was only a friend, a good one that she didn't want to lose to a bad relationship. Meanwhile, James was thinking the same thoughts about Sirius, while he was tossing and turning in his bed. Sirius, although always playing small jokes on James had never even come close to how cruel this was. James didn't want to jeopardize his friendship with Lily by kissing her. How embarrassing!   
The next morning Lily had hoped it was a dream until an exited Sirius and Rose leapt onto her bed. James, who looked extremely tired went over and promptly fell asleep on Rose's bed. The next minute the Sirius, Rose, Alex, Remus, Peter, and Kate were making their way downstairs to breakfast practically dragging James and Lily. Once James made a run for it but Sirius who knew better, had put a charm on him that made him stay within five feet of Sirius. Once in the Great Hall, the eight gryffindors sat down. James looked at Lily, then said, "Ohh god, it would be fine if I had to do this alone, just with our friends, but in front of the teachers, the hufflepuff girls and Snape, that's ugly!"  
"Yeah we should've known better! Well here goes nothing." Sirius and Rose stood up and walked to the middle of the room then proceeded to face the students. Good morning, we hope everyone had a good night's rest because we have something very special in store for you." Rose said enthusiastically.  
"That's right Rose," began Sirius, "If anybody recalls an intense game of chess a while back (people start to laugh), it was us against James and Lily, we one of course, but after we had made a bet." Sirius held up the piece of paper, while Rose continued, "This bet was that he team that lost had to do anything for the other. We are cruel as you may know so we are making them do something very cruel in their opinion."  
"Not only do they have to go to the dance together, but they have to get up her right now and kiss for at least ten seconds." The whole great hall started talking and Sirius yelled, "Shut up. Now as you older students may know, Lily and James were enemy's basically until their fourth year. Now they are good friends and should feel comfortable, as they like each other-" Sirius was interrupted by James who stood up and said, " We don't like each other we are just friends, and for everybody's information we are only accepting this dare because we said yes to the bet and we signed the parchment."  
"Exactly," came Lily's agreement. "Well then get your butts up here and show the school what you're made of!" Sirius was getting impatient. Lily and James slowly got up, glaring at Sirius and Rose the whole time. The school then started to chant…kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss…  
As soon as they were up in the front of the room Lily turned to James and said, "Promise me that whatever happens, this won't ruin our friendship because I really value you as one of my good friends."  
"Ok, I promise only if you do to." Lily nodded and they both turned their attention to Sirius who then said, "We're waiting!" By then the chanting was dying down and the room was silent. You could hear a pin drop, it was so silent. Everybody was anxious to see what happened and to get a better look people sitting near the back of the large room stood up on their seats to watch "the Kiss".   
Lily and James once again faced each other and lily whispered, "It's now or never." They stood there for a while; praying for the bell to ring, when suddenly someone yelled, "Kiss already!" James stepped close to her bent down and kissed her on the lips. A soft, sweet and long, very long kiss that went past the intended time plots. Actually the kiss was more like twenty seconds long, until Professor Dumbledore finally coughed a couple of times to warn them that there was other people in the room. James and Lily quickly pulled apart sensing the length of time they had been "at it". Stunned and surprised they walked back to their seats with quizzical looks on their faces. Sirius and Rose slapped high fives and walked to the table as well, operation 'Getting James and Lily together' was accomplished and they were proud of their efforts played in the plan. Once at the table James sat across from Lily and they starred at each other for quite a while without realizing it until Remus, Sirius, Peter, Kate, Rose and Alex laughed. Kate added, "Nice work guys that was just the kind of thing the school needs in the morning to wake up those brains of theirs." Lily looked around and heard her name buzzing everywhere, "Ohh god," she thought to herself, what have I gotten myself into. He was a really good kisser though. NOOO Lily stop it! What are you thinking, sure he was a good kisser but that doesn't mean I have feelings for him, yeah that's right." She kept telling herself that, but it really wasn't the truth and she knew that. Meanwhile James was studying her face, obviously thinking hard, when he quickly realized what he was doing. He thought to himself, " Sure that was totally embarrassing, but I enjoyed it too. Wait slow down there turbo, what are you telling yourself, do you like her? No way. I am never going to admit I like her, remember, I promised myself not to ruin the friendship."  
That day was crazy for both of them. They each got into a lot of trouble for not concentrating on their homework (who could blame them?) but what made the whole ordeal worse was guys asking if Lily was a good kisser and if James liked her, girls asking him whether he was taken (especially the worried hufflepuffs) and Snape who was using "the kiss" to his advantage to make James and Lily incredibly angry and embarrassed. However, This didn't turn out to well for him as he was cursed many times, turned into a beetle twice and got detention three times that day.   
When that indescribable and unimaginable day finally came to an end all eight gryffindors settled down in their common room and discussed the day. "That went well!" Sirius added on a happy note. "Yeah right," Remus often said his thoughts out loud, "you publicly humiliated two of your best friends."   
"You can say that again brother," Alex said, using her ghetto voice again, as always. "You know it wasn't that bad, it was a step up for these two they loved it, did you all see their faces after they kissed it was…it was… well I can't describe what they were feeling but I know that it was love at first sight!" Rose cried sounding more like a preacher than a friend. "Whatever, I'm off to bed," Lily sighed. She wanted to think about the day's events, her feelings, and what would happen to her friendly relationship with James. After a hard day of thinking, she had concluded that she did like James, and she wanted to dwell on this thought for a while. James to went to bed not because he was tired or tired of hearing the endless 'James and Lily' banter, but because he wanted to think about what would happen to them, and what his likeness for Lily was about.   
Eventually everyone stopped talking about "the kiss" but Lily and James got at least five comments a day, mostly from their friends, about themselves and if they were together, in love, or what not. This would have been worse if they were still enemies, but it helped to be friends because they could stick up for each other and handle this together, although it looked more like they were just denying to announce that they were a couple. They still continued to see each other a lot, not because they necessarily wanted to spend more time than usual with each other, because they had to with their Head Boy/Girl duties and responsibilities. They had just finished working out the plans for the upcoming annual fifth, sixth and seventh year only dance. They knew that they had to go with each other, so while everyone else was nervously going about asking their crushes to the upcoming dance Lily and James were spending yet more time with each other.   
The day of the spring dance, James and Lily were hurriedly rushing around in a fiasco trying to find where Hagrid had put the decorations. Lily was trying to make sure her robes fit ok, while James was asking professor Dumbledore if they could have the dance outside. Everything was crazy; Lily and James were too busy even to go to their classes (or at least they said they were too busy). But at the end of the day, Lily and James admired their work then rushed inside to the castle to get prepared for the dance in fifteen minutes.   
Once in her room Lily quickly took a shower, used magic to put her hair in a beautiful up-do, put some make-up on, and looked in the mirror one last time, saying, "Damn, I look good!" Before rushing downstairs to meet her "date" and the other couples. Rose was going with Sirius, Kate with Snape (uckkkk), and Alex went with Remus. Peter got stuck alone and went with an ugly Slytheirn. All the girls looked beautiful and James practically gawked when he saw Lily but he controlled himself and simply said, "You look good, Lily."   
Thanks, you do too James, very handsome." And with that James held out his arm for Lily and together they led the outside to the lake where the dance was to be held.   
The dance was a magical event (figuratively) and everybody had a great time including both Lily and James. They danced a lot and for once Lily didn't really care about what other people thought of her and James, because everyone knew that they had to go together so it wasn't a bad thing to be seen with him for once. Everybody else had a really fun time and everybody loved the idea of having a dance outside. It was such a wonderful, warm spring night perfect for being outside. Everybody congratulated Lily and James on their combined efforts to make the dance special. It was a very positive experience and a great accomplishment for Lily and James, and they were thrilled with the turnout. "Wow," Lily said to James in amazement while dancing to a slow song together, "This is great, we did a good job!"  
After the dance everyone changed into their pajamas and went strait to bed. The dance had exhausted everyone. They all had such a good time.   
The next day was Saturday. It was to be a very exciting day as Gryffindor was to play Slytherin in quidditch. James was an amazing chaser and the crowds mostly came to watch him. The came was at eleven and everybody had hoped to sleep until around 10:30, but that never happened as the Gryfindor tower was woken up at eight o' clock in the morning, due to all sorts of noises coming from the common room. Everybody tired and angry at the thought of wasting two more perfectly good hours of sleep reluctantly got out of his or her cozy beds to see what the fuss was about. It turned out that Lily was riding James broom around the common room and James was trying to get it back. James was just in his boxers and Lily in her PJ's so Lily had obviously stolen his broom after they had both just woken up. They were chasing each other around the room, knocking everything over and breaking all sorts of lamps and picture frames, when all of a sudden Lily flew the broom into a wall and got flown off it. She fell right onto James who was pinned down and couldn't move as a result of Lily on top of him. They both started laughing and looked around, the common room was a mess and plus everyone was staring at them. Anyway it was quite a way to start off the morning, waking up half the grumpy people up in the house.   
School then preceded back to its boring/grueling pace and everybody was back to all that dull/monotonous work and nonsense homework (As Sirius called it). The next major event was the graduation dance for all the seventh years in late May. James and Lily were going to make this a wonderful dance, because after all it was their last. When all the final preparations were made it was time to announce the dance to the seventh years. One day in early May a sign was posted in the great Hall asking all the 7th years to stay for a quick meeting after breakfast. They did so and Lily, James and Dumbledore introduced the graduation dance to all the excited students. "It will be just our year and you have to ask someone from our year as it is a graduation dance. Ummmm, oh yeah, it is kind of semi-formal, dress robes are fine, but don't overdue it, you can even wear the robes you wore to the spring dance if you choose to. Not a big deal, you know. Let's just have and fun and celebrate the last time we will all at a dance at Hogwarts. Is that all clear, any questions?" Lily said this all mater-of-factly while James stood behind her nodding his head trying to look like that was exactly what he would have said.   
"I have a question," Sirius immediately put in, "Rose, will you go with me?" Everyone laughed, it wasn't the kind of question that Lily had meant, but nonetheless Rose said, "Of course Sirius!" She then gave him a big hug (It was known all around school that they were a couple, but they wouldn't admit it, even when they had shown up holding hands on occasion).   
After the announcement the whole seventh year was hustling and bustling with excitement. They were sad to leave, and everybody wanted to make their last dance very special. At lunch Lily and James talked to each other, amazed at the enthusiasm the dance held. They were so caught up in their role as Head Boy/Girl that they had completely forgotten to ask anyone to the dance. Finally it was a week before the dance and the whole group was talking in the empty common room late at night.   
"I am so excited," Kate stated, "Thanks for asking me Peter, I don't know who else I would have gone with, we will have fun!"  
"Wow, I didn't know you really wanted to go with me!" Peter said with astonishment. Sirius then said, with that same glint in his eye, that usually come about when talking about something that involved a scheme, "You know, Peter with Kate, Rose with me, Remus with Alex, humph I guess that leaves James with I don't know…LILY?"   
"Whatever." Lily stated, she wasn't about to argue James was a great friend, and besides, she was too tired. The rest of the group dispersed and soon made their way to their beds.   
Lily and James as usual spent a lot of time together working on the dance that week. The dance was to start at 7:30, and everything seemed to be in order at around 6:45 so Lily and James rushed to their dorms to get ready. Everyone met down in the common room at around 7:15 and everybody looked great! James absentmindedly stared at Lily (not realizing it), it was true she was beautiful and looked great. She took his arm and they led the way as their group made their way down to the Great Hall. Immediately as the dance started everyone complimented Lily and James on their decorations and the dance in general. It was great. Everybody seemed to have a good time. Lily and James danced quite a bit. There was something changing about their relationship. They knew each other a lot better this year and got to be really close friends. But Rose, Alex, Kate, Remus, Peter, and Sirius thought there was a spark that could mean that they were more than just friends.   
About halfway through the dance Lily announced that she had to go to the bathroom. James made his way to a table and watched the other couples dance. Rose and Sirius were definitely more than just friends, James thought to himself. They had recently spent a lot of time with each other. He silently laughed to himself, they were the perfect match. No sooner had a finished this thought when the music ended abruptly and the lights flashed on. Dumbledore jogged to the center of the room and shouted to everyone, "Voldemort is in the castle we need to perform the drill we practiced in the beginning of the year-" No sooner had James heard Voldemort, he sprinted towards the door to the Great Hall with all the seventh years looking after him. Dumbledore didn't stop him however, as he knew what James was after. Jams silently ran throughout the halls to the various bathrooms in Hogwarts thinking to himself, "How could I let Lily get away from me, she is wandering around the castle by herself when Voldemort is there and is after her, stupid me! I will blame myself if she dies, she can't die. I don't know what my life would be like without Lily. Oh no!" James finally stopped to lean over and take a few deep breaths before continuing his search. He didn't know where Lily could be he had searched practically all the bathrooms, the Gryffindor common room all the secret passageways he knew. Where could she be? James sat down on a bench to catch his breath and started to face the realization that Lily could be anywhere with Voldemort or worse could be dead. He tried not to think this thought, but he couldn't not think it. Lily was irreplaceable. James didn't know what this meant; all of a sudden he found a new light and thought to himself. "Could Lily be more than just a friend to me?" He silently agreed that he sort of liked Lily, but this didn't help, as he would probably never see her again. But he realized that he couldn't stop trying or the thought of himself giving up would haunt him forever. He turned and started running again when he heard a high-pitched scream that was none other than Lily's. He sprinted as fast as he could toward the entrance doors. He ran outside and made out a figure half running, half stumbling toward he castle from the forbidden forest in the distance. He ran to her and instantly hugged her. "Ohh my god, you're all right!"   
They heard rustling in the bushes nearby and Lily stood up with effort and started to yell at James, " he's coming, run!" She then dropped the ground in a dead faint. James didn't know what Voldemort had done to her, but she was all white and had no energy in her what so ever. James picked her up and easily ran as fast as he could to the castle. He ran through the doors and set Lily down. "Lily?" James was nudging her to wake up, "Lily, are you alright?"  
Lily woke up form her faint and started to cry hysterically. "I-I-am so sc-scared." She couldn't say anymore as he picked her up again and started to walk her to the Great Hall. James entered the Great Hall carrying Lily who was crying with her face in his robes. She was terrified and he didn't even want to know what had gone on in the forest. The whole school was in there and everyone made a huge crowd around Lily. James stood her up on her feet. But she fainted again and James caught her luckily. Dumbledore came over as well as Sirius, Kate, Rose, Remus, Alex, and Peter. They were devastated. Dumbledore suggested that James bring her up to the hospital wing and said that Voldemort was gone and the danger was over.   
The next morning as everyone went down to breakfast; all they could talk about was Lily. There were rumors everywhere that James had pulled her out of Voldemort's hands and that Lily was going to die.   
James entered the Great Hall by himself that morning. Everyone else had gone to check-up on Lily in the Hospital, but James didn't want to, he told them that he thought she would be mad at him.   
It turned out Lily was grateful for his efforts. She was disappointed when he didn't show up with the others. When she asked her friends why he didn't come Alex responded, "He said he thought you would be mad at him. We don't understand why thought, he said something about he was supposed to watch you, but whatever, he was probably just a little tired."  
"It's true." Lily answered.   
"What?" The group of seventh years looked puzzled.   
"Voldemort was after me for no apparent reason, only James and I were supposed to know."  
"But how do you know? And why does James know too?" Remus was extremely baffled. "Dumbledore found out somehow and told me and told James so that he could protect me. So I guess James thought it was his fault that Voldemort got to me. But he's wrong it wasn't his fault I was just going to the loo." (A/N: heheheheh)  
Sirius was interested in none other than the Voldemort part when he said, "Well what exactly happened, or do you not want to tell." Everyone smacked Sirius because Lily instantly turned pale and white and started to cry. "I guess that's a no." Alex said, very angry with Sirius. Lily recovered when they changed the subject on graduating and summer. She realized she needed to sort things out with James, and thank him; after all he had saved her life. When Madame Pomfrey left the room Lily changed into her robes and ran out the door without even telling her friends what she was up to. But they knew her too well and followed closely behind to see what was going to happen between her and James. She entered the Great Hall and spotted James eating alone. He was all pale and sad. The Hall grew silent as everyone saw who had just entered. James turned and saw that Lily was entering. Once she saw him she ran up to James and pulled him into an immense hug. They hugged for quite awhile and Lily started to cry. James patted her hair and said, "It's ok Lil, I'm sorry."  
"It's not your fault, I don't expect you to go to the bathroom with me too." At the last part they both started to laugh.   
After about another week the school was back to normal, but not really because graduation was a couple of days. The seventh years were very happy yet sad. On the day of graduation everyone dressed up and met in the common room. James looked at Lily and was stunned, Wow!" He thought, "She looks great, I can still remember when we were first years and we were enemies." Meanwhile… Lily was thinking, "I can't believe we're leaving, everybody says we'll still be friends, but what about James and I, I like how are friendship is going, I don't want to lose that." They both really, really, really, liked each other, but wouldn't admit to themselves. It had started after the kiss and now they were completely falling for each other. What was worse was that everybody knew it but wanted them to figure their feelings out for themselves.   
At graduation the audience was in tears. All the students' parents' were there and proud of their children. The ceremony was so nice. All their teachers were there and Dumbledore gave everyone diplomas with the Hogwarts seal on them. Then in turn, the students walked up and received their diplomas shook his hand and left. The last three students were Taylor Lane, a Ravenclaw who was the Valedictorian, James and Lily. After Taylor received hr diploma and said a nice speech Dumbledore called up Lily and James together he said, "finally, our last two students. Hogwarts is proud to give diplomas to James Potter and Lily Evans, our Head Boy and Head Girl. They have the top grades in this school along with Miss Lane, and are role models to all the younger students. We commend them for their efforts to make Hogwarts fun and lively. They have both been through a lot this year (at that comment Lily looked at James and gave him a smile, meaning thanks, he smiled back) and I hope that they will continue to grow into great people. Thanks you James and Lily." Everyone applauded, Professor Dumbledore gave Lily her diploma and James his, then he hugged them. After Lily also hugged James and whispered in his ear, "thank you". He smiled back. She started crying and James hugged her again.   
When graduation was over everyone (James, Lily, Sirius, Rose, Alex, Remus, Kate, and Peter) went to Sirius's house for a party. They had a good time sharing memories, crying and discussing the future.  
  



End file.
